Maid thrashing case: MP's wife says she's 'mad'

BSP MP Dhananjay Singh's wife Jagriti Singh, accused of murdering her maid, being brought to Chankyapuri police station in New Delhi. (PTI Photo)

Jagriti Singh, wife of BSP Lok Sabha MP Dhananjay Singh, declared before a court that she was “mad” and, according to police sources, “deliberately acted difficult and tough to handle” while being taken to prison after being sentenced to judicial custody on Monday.

Personnel entrusted with the duty of taking the couple to west Delhi’s Tihar Jail said she seemed to be doing so on her lawyer’s instructions.

Police sources suggested that the unusual behaviour seemed to be in line with building a ground to plead mental irregularity to argue for a lighter sentence in the murder case of her maid Rakhi Bhadra, 35.

Meanwhile, police officials said they had “unofficially accessed” a portion of the CCTV footage procured from the couple’s South Avenue flat on Monday.

“We have seen one particular clip in which Jagriti is beating Rakhi, Meena Sardar and her 17-year-old help with what looks like a wooden stick as they stand around - seemingly used to such behaviour,” said a senior police officer.

“Rakhi, in particular, looks evidently malnourished (in the footage) and on the verge of collapsing due to sheer physical exhaustion. Since only one such clip was viewed, we decided not to submit information of it in court and sought more time to present this as evidence,” the officer added.

Senior police officers said they were hopeful of getting access to the hard drive that contained the footage in its entirety and a report from Rohini’s forensics sciences laboratory (FSL) by Wednesday.

A police team despatched to West Bengal to bring Bhadra’s son Shahzan back to the Capital is understood to have told senior officers that he was unwilling to come back to Delhi after having absconded last Thursday.

“Meena Sardar’s son Rajan has, however, expressed his willingness to come to meet his mother, who is currently admitted in RML hospital. He will reach Delhi by tomorrow,” the officer said.

Jagriti has been lodged in Jail number 4 at Tihar while Dhananjay is currently in Jail number 6.